Over-reliance on the property tax can leave municipalities without adequate funds to pay for basic services. This over-reliance can also have a wide array of unintended consequences, as cash-starved cities and towns make land use decisions to maximize revenues, often at odds with good planning practice. These consequences can include regional inequity, resource degradation, higher housing costs, and unmitigated impacts on neighboring communities.
The state can help to solve these problems by increasing local aid through a new needs-based formula, by linking local aid to consistency with the Commonwealth’s Sustainable Development Principles, by stabilizing local aid and increasing predictability, and by allowing municipalities to raise more revenue locally from sources other than the property tax.
15) Stabilize local aid and revisit local aid formulas
16) Maintain the state income tax rate at current levels